User Reviews

Buddha Bodai

Posted by Anonymous on 07/16/2009

well done kosher Chinese

Very good kosher Chinese vegetarian. About two thirds of the customers seem to be Chinese and a good proportion of the remainder, Orthodox Jewish. Some of the waiters amusingly know a few words of Hebrew. Overall, the best kosher Chinese food I've had.

Buddha Bodai

Posted by Phoebe on 03/08/2009

I wish I could eat here everyday!

Hands down the best vegetarian and Chinese restaurant I have ever been to. I was in the city for a few days and went there as many times as I could because I couldn't get enought of it. The menu is huge and it's a little difficult to decide what to order. If you go before 3:30 they have a dim sum menu. It ranges its cheap and filling and there is a great variety so you could eat lunch for $10. My suggestions are the bun and steamed dumplings. If you are a lo mein fan definately try the shredded chicken lo mein. I order lo mein everywhere I go and this was the best lo mein I have ever had. Orange chicken is great, but fried. Shitake mushrooms and broccoli was delicious. Biggest shitake mushrooms I have ever seen and they were prepared tempura style. The broccoli was delicious and fresh as well. I also tried the gluten and vegetables pan fried noodle which was delicious. I randomly tried everything so I know that I could have probably chosen anything on the menu and really enjoyed it.

Buddha Bodai

Posted by Anonymous on 03/06/2009

Love it!

I eat here all the time and always enjoy the fresh tasty food. They have really delicious dim sum and the bbq meat is the tastiest thing on the menu. The staff is super friendly and all know me and greet me by name. They call my boyfriend "mister." Super cute! I have to say that their lunch specials are not as good as the dim sum, but it definitely depends on your taste and what you consider is authentic. I like the things that are more culturally Chinese, so I love the jellyfish, lotus rice, and congee. I highly recommend this place for brunch or dinner!

Buddha Bodai

Posted by pickyveggirl on 01/30/2009

My FAVORITE vegetarian restaurant

I've been a vegetarian my whole life and am so sick of places that serve bland, hippy seeds and grains or a slab of tofu on a tomato slice and try to pass it off as gourmet. Buddha Bodai is the exact opposite of that. I first went to Buddha Bodai after seeing it reviewed on NYC TV, and I have been back countless times since then. The food is sooooooooooo yummy! Ok, the atmosphere is pretty ordinary, but so what? The food is damn good! I don't even like Chinese food, but I literally crave the food from this restaurant! My favorite dishes are the Sesame Chicken and the Orange Beef or Chicken...they taste pretty similar but the Sesame Chicken is a little bit crispier. It's delectable! The soups are so-so, but the main dishes more than make up for it. I wish it weren't all the way in China town, but I will make the trek from Hell's kitchen for thier delicious food ANYTIME!!

Buddha Bodai

Posted by Anonymous on 10/20/2008

Great Veg. Chinese Food

I recently moved to NYC from Florida to go to College (Columbia Univ). I'll admit that the abundance of vegan friendly establishments was a fairly large influence on my decision to go to school here. Unfortunately, the friends I have made turn their noses up at mock meat, but when my boyfriend visited this past weekend I jumped at the chance to use my wiles and persuaded him to go. Let me start by noting that this is my first experience with real vegan Chinese food until coming here the only chinese food I had since becoming vegan was the token "bean curd and vegetables" that every chinese joint seems to sell at a ridiculous price. Buddha Bodai really impressed me AND my boyfriend as well. It really satisfied my craving for good American chinese food that I had not enjoyed in 10+ years. I really liked the pot of tea included with the meal it was a nice welcome waiting at the table as we came in from the chilly NY street. We ordered the pan fried vegetable dumplings as an appetizer. They were good, but pretty typical pot-sticker style dumplings filled with the requisite veggies and a realistic mock pork. I had read reviews online that raved about the bbq veg. meat. Unfortunately, I got this confused with the "crispy veg. meat" on the menu. This was the only low point of the meal for me, though my bf really enjoyed it. I found nothing "meaty" about it, it was basically just a piece of greasy fried bread. If you're into that, you might enjoy this but if you're looking for something crispy and meatysteer clear. I realized my mistake and asked for an order of the BBQ veg meat. The flavor was delicious and very reminiscent of bbq pork that my bro. always gets. The texture was a bit soft, but you can't expect it to be exactly equal to real pork. The portion is HUGE for this app. so keep that in mind. We split an entree of General Tso's chicken, by far the BEST part of the meal. Again, you can't expect seitan (is that what they use?) to be as firm as meat, but that didn't matter at all for this dish. The flavor was perfect, the broccoli was cooked to perfection. The only thing missing was rice. It doesn't say that rice comes with it, Ive jut always expected that. So order a side of rice for this. The service was good. It wasnt busy so we were served quickly. The only complaint is we had to ask for water and our cups were only refilled once. Overall I enjoyed the hell out of this place and ef plan to return!

Buddha Bodai

Posted by blondie on 08/31/2008

good stuff

best Kosher Chinese

I bring my friends here who do not normally eat kosher or vegetarian and they love it, too! The service is friendly, the place is spotless clean and the food is delicious, absolutely delicious. Great portion sizes and clearly fresh homemade food. Why go anywhere else? Really, why?